Child Marriage: What should YOU(th) do?

Nowadays Child Marriage which is commonly known as
“বাল্যবিবাহ (Ballo Bibaho) in Bangladesh is increasing
dangerously! According to the law of Bangladesh, marriage between
a girl under 18 years of age and a boy under 21 is called
child marriage.

The Child Marriage Act of 1929 certifies-->Child Marriage is a punishable crime.-> Parents and other persons supporting this marriage
will be punished too.->Child Marriage can be canceled.

[Punishment of Groom & Bride]According to Child Marriage Control Act 1929, section
4:-> If any under 21 year old man marries any woman under
18, or if any under 18 year old woman marries any under- 21 year
old man; they both will be jailed for one month and/or will be
fined BDT ৳1,000 taka (almost $12.5).

[Punishment of Marriage Register]According to Child Marriage Control Act 1929, section
5:-> If any person arranges/manages Child
Marriage, gives direction to arrange or manage Child
Marriage he/she will be jailed for one month and/or will be
fined BDT ৳1000 taka. But if the accused person can prove that
the marriage was not a Child Marriage, then he/she will be
free from the punishment.

[Punishment of the Parents]According to Child Marriage Control Act 1929, section
6:-> If the parents of a girl under 18 & a 21 year
old boy make a deal to arrange a Child Marriage, support
Child Marriage, inspire Child Marriage, fail to
stop Child Marriage and don't take responsibility of
Child Marriage will be accused and will be jailed for one
month and/or will be fined BDT ৳1000 taka.

(NB: A woman can't be or mustn't be jailed. They can be
fined only)

According to Wikipedia ::Child Marriage rates in Bangladesh are amongst the highest in the world. Every 2
out of 3 marriages involve Child Marriages. According to
statistics from 2005 45% of
women then between 25 and 29 were married by the age of 15 in
Bangladesh. According to the “State of the World’s
Children-2009” report, 63% of all women aged 20–24 were married
before they were 18. Mia's Law was enacted in 2006 to protect child
brides from abuse following the torture and murder of Mia Armador,
an 11 year-old who was killed by her abusive 48 year-old husband.
This law requires all marriages under
13 to require special government permission. The Ministry of
Women and Children Affairs is making progress in increasing
women's education and employment opportunities. This, combined with
specific education about child marriage and cooperation with
religious leaders, is hoped to decrease Child
Marriage.

Now we should come to the present situation. The current
situation is not improving at all. In the rural areas of Bangladesh
Child Marriage is increasing day by day. They are collecting
fake birth certificates, providing a fake date of birth and
arranging Child Marriage. This is the dangerous point. The
UN says 48% girls are married before they are 18 and ICRW says 66%
girls are married before they are 18. The girls are having their
rights taken away. It's violation of human rights. These Child
Marriages must be stopped.

But there are some positive points too. The younger generation,
smart and educated boys & girls, are more concerned about
Child Marriage. They are concerned about their rights. They
arrange rallies, seminars, roadshow to create awareness among the
mass people. We should come forward to prevent Child
Marriage. We should certify the safety of our girls.

Now let's look at the conditions worldwide:

Every year, 14 million girls in the world are married as
children, denied their rights to health, education and opportunity,
and robbed of their childhood. If we do nothing, by 2030 an
estimated 15.4 million girls a year will marry as
children!!

Every year, an estimated 14 million girls aged under 18 are married
worldwide with little or no say in the matter. In the developing
world, one in seven girls is married before her 15th birthday and
some child brides are as young as eight or nine.

Neither physically nor emotionally ready to become wives and
mothers, these girls are at far greater risk of experiencing
dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, becoming
infected with HIV/AIDS and suffering domestic violence. With
little access to education and economic opportunities, they and
their families are more likely to live in poverty.

-||Child marriage and the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs)||-

Child marriage directly hinders the achievement of 6 of the 8
Millennium Development Goals. Simply put, the
international community will not fulfil its commitments to reduce
global poverty unless it tackles child marriage.

-||Girls are disproportionately affected by child
marriage||-

While boys are sometimes subjected to early marriage, girls are
disproportionately affected and form the vast majority of the
victims of child marriage. A comparison of the proportion of
young women aged 15-19 who were married in 2003 to young men aged
15-19 who were married in the same year found the ratio to be 72
to 1 in Mali, 8 to 1 in the US, and 6 to 1 in El Salvador.

-||Child marriage: What does international law say?||-

The right to ‘free and full’ consent to a marriage is recognised
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) prohibits child marriage.

Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),
governments have committed to ensure the overall protection of
children and young people aged under 18, however, child marriage
and the range of rights implications it has, substantially
infringe these protections.

-||How can we end child marriage?||-Solutions vary
according to the circumstances in each community, but I have
highlighted some of the effective interventions below.

=> 1. Educating and empowering girls

Education is one of the most powerful tools to delay the age at
which girls marry as school attendance helps shift norms around
child marriage.

Improving girls’ access to quality schooling will increase girls’
chances of gaining a secondary education and helps to delay
marriage. When a girl in the developing world receives seven or
more years of education, she marries on average four years later.

Empowering girls, by offering them opportunities to gain skills
and education, providing support networks and creating ‘safe
spaces’ where girls can gather and meet outside the home, can
help girls to assert their right to choose when they marry.

=> 2. Supporting young people to become activists for
change.

=> 3. Mobilising and educating communities

Laws alone won’t end child marriage – in many instances
legislation is not enforced as many local authorities are
reluctant to be seen as interfering in the private affairs of
families. Many are simply unaware of the scale of child marriage
and the harmful impact it can have.

=> 4. Bringing men and traditional leaders on board

Religious and traditional leaders, too, can play a key role in
speaking out against child marriage and changing community
attitudes. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has spoken forcefully on the
need for men and boys, as well as religious and traditional
leaders, to support efforts to end child marriage.

=> 5. Enacting and enforcing laws that set a legal minimum
age for marriage

While most countries legislate for a minimum legal age for
marriage, this is often not enforced. Some countries continue to
have a legal age for marriage lower than in the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child. The legal age for marriage is also
higher for men than women in many countries.

=> 6. Introducing incentives

Introducing economic incentives can help to encourage families to
consider alternatives to child marriage. Incentives include
microfinance schemes to help girls support themselves and their
families, and providing loans, subsidies and conditional cash
transfers to parents of girls at risk of becoming child
brides.